The MP wrote on his website this week that he was a victim of "political and media hounding".

In the statement, he said: "Whatever lack of qualification or carelessness in his words, were we really to believe that [he] meant or implied that all Jews were/are responsible for Israel's repressions?"

The post added that Ward had linked the Holocaust and the situation in Israel only "in the obvious sense that the Holocaust was used as a part of the Zionist agenda for occupying another people's land".

It said his "real 'mistake', as far as the Zionist lobby and many liberal commentariat are concerned - and as his Liberal colleague Jenny Tongue also found out to her cost - was to criticise Israel at all."

Alert readers of my own humble blog may recognise those words attributed by Lipman to Ward. In fact, they're mine, not Ward's at all, a detail that the most cursory examination of the piece and its footed source at Ward's site would instantly show.

An ironic omission, some might say, from someone who, like Lipman, shows no interest in letting up on David Ward's own careless use of language - for which he's apologised - or the essential points he's been trying to make on Palestine-Israel.

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Update, 17 Feb 2013

The above-noted article by Jennifer Lipman has now been modified (16 Feb 2013), removing all quotations from the Zenpolitics piece and comments about what David Ward was reported to 'have said in it' at his site. There appears to be no acknowledgement or apology to Ward or anyone else for the error.

Senior Liberal Democrats are considering removing the whip from MP David Ward in the wake of his repeated slurs against Jews and Israel.

The Bradford East MP is to meet Nick Clegg and deputy party leader Simon Hughes at the start of next week, where he will face further questions over statements such as that "the Jews" have failed to learn the lessons of the Holocaust or that there is a powerful pro-Israel "machine" in operation.

He had already been formally censured and had committed not to "again use the phrase 'the Jews' in this context", when, last week, he suggested that in discussing it might be advisable to substitute "the Jewish community" for "the Jews".

Speaking to representatives of Anglo-Jewry, Chief Whip Alistair Carmichael pledged this comment would be treated as a fresh issue.

Mr Carmichael has now confirmed that the party is willing to invoke "the full range of sanctions" over Mr Ward's conduct and that they will meet the MP again once Mr Clegg returns from a trip to Mozambique on Saturday.

The MP, who has been backed by anti-Israel academic Noam Chomsky, was summoned to Mr Carmichael's office on Monday and given a chance to explain himself.
But he clarified that his statements had not been misreported and there was "no innocent explanation" and refused to backtrack.

Mr Carmichael said he was following the parliamentary party's disciplinary process for breaches of party discipline. "Obviously without prejudging the outcome all options are available at the end of that process," he said. "I can confirm that these options include the suspension or withdrawal of the whip."

He said Mr Ward's was the most serious disciplinary issue he had encountered since becoming whip in 2010. "In the time I've done this job it is the first time I've even got to the point of issuing a formal letter of reprimand, and the first time we've gone beyond that."

The MP wrote on his website this week that he was a victim of "political and media hounding".

In the statement, he said: "Whatever lack of qualification or carelessness in his words, were we really to believe that [he] meant or implied that all Jews were/are responsible for Israel's repressions?"
The post added that Ward had linked the Holocaust and the situation in Israel only "in the obvious sense that the Holocaust was used as a part of the Zionist agenda for occupying another people's land".

It said his "real 'mistake', as far as the Zionist lobby and many liberal commentariat are concerned - and as his Liberal colleague Jenny Tongue also found out to her cost - was to criticise Israel at all."

Questioned on "MPs who use the conflict in Israel to make inflammatory comments about Jews" in parliament, Mr Clegg said he was "unambiguous in my condemnation of anyone… who uses insensitive, intemperate, provocative and offensive language to describe a long running conflict about which people have very strong feelings".